The first Christmas lunch

So, I promised photos of the lunch I had with my work buddies. We went to a rustic restaurant, where we were sure the food would be comfy and delicious. I chose the vegetarian menu, cause they sadly didn't know or want to make me a vegan one. Never mind, the cheese was yummi, scratching aside.

The appetizer: marinated zucchini squash (on olive oil) & fresh cheese with herbs on a bed of arugula. Oh my f-ing broccoli. So good, SO GOOD! I finished it all and was sadly already full after the appetizer! A few more courses to go.

Grilled young cheese in a honey & pine nuts sauce on a bed of corn salad (this corn salad from the lettuce family, not actual corn - is there any other name for it?). MY f-ing broccoli again! 

After the first I had to prepare myself for the second. I was expecting a small amount of gnocchi, as usually one gets, but this is what I actually got:

That's a whole huge plate of home-made gnocchi in vegetable sauce with carrots, zucchini and eggplants diced. I mean, I wouldn't eat it for a single serving and not after 2 courses! But guess what, although I almost exploded, had to hold my stomach and down a few more glasses of a delicious cabernet, I finished almost everything.

Sadly, I had no more room for desert, but the rest of the people each ordered cakes! My oh my, where did they put it?!

Is your mouth watering by now? :-) 

Eat something :)

Becoming a broccoli

It's Christmas time again and I can say, finally, I truly feel the Christmas spirit. The temperatures dropped, there's luckily no snow, but the trees are white nonetheless due to cold temperatures. So I have a really nice view from my office :-)

I've been working like crazy. December is always a busy time for us, what with things to complete before new year.

So even when I was home, this was a usual:

Eating by the computer. No time to take it slow. That's actually penne pasta in a vegetable sauce by Barilla with tomato, peas, carrots and pumpkin. Reminds me of a soup or baby food, really. 

I'm wrapping it up at work today and have vacation next week! Hooray! So I've finished most of my work and I'm finally taking it a bit easy.

 Soup. Do you really expect me to remember every soup I make? I think it was leek soup, though.

The past years during Christmas we would always fight which family to visit first, for christmas dinner or lunch because we always forgot where we spent the past christmas and both families want us home, like always.

So last year I said, we'll just stay home for Christmas, the two of us and then we'll visit during the week. Oh joy, how handy it came this year, when the usual "when are you coming for christmas??" began and we said "we'll stay home like last year!" 

It's like, we're a family now, the two of us, or something :-)

Cereal burgers with mashed potatoes and raddichio.

So the past weekend I did visit a newborn family of ours - my brother, sister-in-law and my niece! Oh gosh, she's so tiny and sleeping like the dead! I can't post photos because I promised I would not, so - sorry. But she is the cuttest button ever. The other family baby, my cousin's daughter Eva we will visit after the new year, we let them enjoy this time in peace, I know they have enough of other visits.

Soy burgers with broccoli, fries and mixed salad.

I'm planning a huge baking / cooking session this weekend. I have my eye on a few cookie recipes and although I'm not a cookie-making fan, I like to make my own cookie gifts to give to friends, so I'll just endure it :)

 Nothing beats freshly squeezed orange juice. Lots of that around here these days.

Risotto with broccoli, carrots and pumpkin, salad mix. If you are what you eat, I'm broccoli these days.

So I'll be posting more the next days, hopefully, since I'll be home much and cooking. Stay tuned.

How about your days? Are you busy? Eating properly? :-)

Oh remind me to post pics of the company's Christmas lunch :) So much yumminess!

Getting in Christmas mood

It's been some crazy days since the birth of my niece, and I still didn't get to see her at all, but maybe this weekend brings more luck.

It's hectic at work, too, as every December is.

Luckily, I got to enjoy some peace and quite this past weekend, when me and M. just stayed home for a change and focused on cooking, eating, resting and, well, some cleaning and ironing, too.

I like cleaning, or, I like the final result when the house is clean and tidy, but I hate the moments, when you're gathering yourself and like "ok, I'll go clean now". It takes me forever to get to the point when I actually take a mop in my hands :) but when I do, I clean just about everything. Plant leaves included.

We also were getting in xmas spirit. On Friday I put up the xmas tree in the office and Saturday I did it at home.

 

We live in a tiny flat and we can only afford to have a tiny xmas tree, that we place on the kitchen table, right next to my cookbooks and blender. Not the best position, but one has to work with the resources she has and I'm making the best I can. And it only lasts a few weeks, right? So, we'll just endure a smaller eating space for some short time.

One other thing I also did this past weekend was relaxing, full time. Like this:

A cup of nettle&mint tea and good reading. Life doesn't get much better.

In cooking news, these are some dishes I made the past week:

The Redwood's Falafel with baked potatoes & peas in creamy sauce

Risotto with tofu & zucchini

Baked polenta with cauliflower and a "mexican" sauce with zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, tomato sauce & corn.

Some more rice: stir-fry with broccoli and cabbage